Page 8 - Black History Month 2022 - Combined Special Edition of Aerotech News and Review — Nellis AFB - Creech AFB Desert Lightning News

First African American in space: Guion Bluford

Guion Stewart “Guy” Bluford Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Penn., “I wanted to set the standard, do the best job possible so that
in 1942. other people would be comfortable with African Americans
He enrolled in Pennsylvania State University as a member of the flying in space and African-Americans would be proud of being
Air Force ROTC, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace participants in the space program.”
engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 1964. Guion “Guy” Bluford
After commissioning, Bluford attended pilot training at Williams
Air Force Base, Ariz. Upon earning his Air Force pilot’s wings and communications satellite for India and performed tests with the
commercial pilot’s license, Bluford went to F-4C combat training. remote manipulator system.
He was assigned to the 557th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 12th Tactical Bluford returned to space in October 1985 on Challenger’s STS-
Fighter Wing, in Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, and flew 144 61A flight, serving as a mission specialist on Spacelab D1, a
combat missions. He won several medals for his service, including scientific mission sponsored by the West German space agency.
the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. The flight marked the first and so far only time that eight astronauts
In July 1967, Bluford was assigned to the 3630th Flying Training launched aboard a single spacecraft. During their seven days in
Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, as a T-38A instructor pilot. orbit, the international crew conducted 75 experiments in a variety
He served as a standardization/evaluation officer and as an assistant of scientific disciplines.
flight commander. In early 1971, he attended Squadron Officer Making his third trip into space, Bluford launched about space
School and returned as an executive support officer to the Deputy shuttle Discovery in April 1991 on STS-39, the first flight to carry
Commander of Operations and as School Secretary for the Wing. five mission specialists. During the eight-day unclassified mission
In August 1972, Bluford entered the U.S. Air Force Institute NASA photograph
of Technology residency school at Wright-Patterson Air Force Selected in 1978, NASA astronauts Ronald E. McNair, left, Guion for the Department of Defense, Bluford and his crewmates divided
Base, Ohio. Upon graduating in 1974 with his master’s degree, he S. “Guy” Bluford, and Frederick D. Gregory. into two teams working around the clock. They conducted a series
was assigned to the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory at Wright- of observations of Earth’s upper atmosphere and its interactions with
Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as a staff development engineer. and F-5A/B aircraft, including 1,300 hours as a T-38 instructor pilot. the shuttle orbiter. The mission’s unusually high 57-degree orbital
He served as deputy for advanced concepts for the Aeromechanics He also has an FAA commercial pilot license. When he left the Air inclination allowed the astronauts to observe most of the Earth’s
Division and as branch chief of the Aerodynamics and Airframe landmasses. Using the shuttle’s remote manipulator system, they
Branch in the Laboratory. He has written and presented several Force, he was a colonel. deployed and retrieved the Shuttle Pallet Satellite-II that conducted
In January 1978, NASA selected its largest group of astronauts up
scientific papers in the area of computational fluid dynamics. to that time, 35 pilots and mission specialists, for the space shuttle independent observations for two days, including monitoring shuttle
While in the Air Force, Bluford logged more than 5,200 thruster and engine firings.
hours of jet flight time in the T-33, T-37, T-38, F-4C, U-2/TR-1, program then under development. For his fourth and final spaceflight, Bluford lifted off aboard
For the first time, NASA included women and minorities in
the selection group, including three African-Americans — Ronald space shuttle Discovery in December 1992. During the seven-
E. McNair, Bluford and Frederick D. Gregory, one pilot and two day STS-53 flight, the final mission dedicated to the DOD,
mission specialists. Bluford and his four crewmates deployed the third Satellite Data
In 1983, as a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Challenger’s System-2 military communications satellite and conducted several
STS-8 mission, Bluford became the first African American in space. unclassified experiments. On his four missions, he logged 688 hours
During the six-day flight that featured the first night launch and of spaceflight time.
night landing of the shuttle program, the astronauts deployed a Bluford retired from NASA in 1993 to join the private sector.

“It might be a bad thing to be first, if you stop and think about it. It might be
better to be second or third because then you can enjoy it and disappear —

return to the society you came out of without someone always poking you
in the side and saying you were first.”
Guion “Guy” Bluford

NASA photograph
Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for mission STS 8 on Aug. 30,
1983. The five-person crew included the first African American
in space, Guy Bluford.

NASA photograph
Bluford exercising on the treadmill in the middeck of space NASA photograph
shuttle Challenger during the STS-8 mission. Guion S. “Guy” Bluford on the flight deck of space shuttle Discovery.

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